Archive
09/05/2014 – Ephemeris – Supernovae and the Moon this weekend
Ephemeris for Friday, September 5th. The sun will rise at 7:09. It’ll be up for 13 hours and 2 minutes, setting at 8:11. The moon, half way from first quarter to full, will set at 4:07 tomorrow morning.
Tonight the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will hold their monthly meeting at he Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory at 8 p.m. featuring Dr. David Penney, who will talk about Supernovae, the brightest, at optical wavelengths anyway explosions in the universe. These will either completely destroy a star or leave a neutron star or black hole remnant. At 9 p.m. there will be a star party featuring the Moon, Saturn and Mars. The observatory is located on Birmley road. On Saturday the society will celebrate International Observe the Moon Night with telescopes set up on the 200 block of Front street in Traverse City. That event starts around 9 p.m., but only if it’s clear.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Remnant of SN1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud, 160,000 light years away taken by the Hubble telescope’s WFPC2 camera on three occasions in 1994 and 1995. The outer rings are light echos of the explosions ionizing clouds ejected thousands of years before. Credit NASA.
Supernova 2014J in nearby galaxy M82, 12 million light years away. Credit NASA/Swift/P. Brown, TAMU.
09/04/2014 – Ephemeris – Saturday is International Observe the Moon Night
Ephemeris for Thursday, September 4th. The sun will rise at 7:08. It’ll be up for 13 hours and 5 minutes, setting at 8:13. The moon, 2 days past first quarter, will set at 2:56 tomorrow morning.
This Saturday the 6th is International Observe the Moon Night and while some of us amateur astronomers consider it as a big street light we can’t get away from. It does have a hold on most of the rest of the population. It is our closest celestial body and the only one we’ve set foot on. It contains the answers to the creation of the Earth as we know it today. Humankind’s impact on the moon isn’t visible from the Earth, so puny his attempts, so the Moon appears as pristine as it did to Galileo, who first studied it with his telescope. Members of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will set up their telescopes on the sidewalk on the north side of he 200 block of Front Street near the Martinek clock. And will start showing the Moon to all comers after 9 p.m. but only if it’s clear.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Here’s a link to the InOMN’s annotated Moon map (pdf) for Saturday.
Here’s a link to the InOMN’s home page. Expand the global map on the page for the location of the event nearest to you.
08/08/2014 – Ephemeris – Supermoon plus astronomical fun in the Grand Traverse Area
Ephemeris for Friday, August 8th. The sun rises at 6:36. It’ll be up for 14 hours and 21 minutes, setting at 8:58. The moon, 2 days before full, will set at 5:17 tomorrow morning.
In two days the Moon will reach perigee within a few hours of being a full moon. This has become known as a supermoon. Perigee is the point where an Earth orbiting object is closest to the Earth. The farthest point is called apogee. The coincidence of full moon and perigee was coined as the supermoon by astrologer Richard Knolle in 1979, but apparently didn’t catch on until he wrote a popular article in 2011. No wonder I hadn’t heard of it, this program had been on for 4 years before the term was even coined. The problem with appreciating the supermoon is the lack of a reference of nearly the same size. The moon always looks large when it’s near the horizon. It’s a well-known optical illusion, It’ll fool us every time.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Saturday evening the 9th the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society (GTAS) will host a Sun and Star Party at Thoreson Farm at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. It’s the concluding event at the Port Oneida Fair. Solar viewing will be from 4 to 6 p.m., and the evening event will run from 9 to 11 p.m. with the main attraction will be the nearly full Moon, the planet Saturn and colorful binary stars and bright star clusters. Thoreson Farm is located on South Thoreson Road. South Thoreson Road runs into M22, about a mile west of Port Oneida Road.
Sunday evening the 10th the GTAS will attend the Meteors and S’mores event at the Leelanau State Park at the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula. The event will run from 8:30 p.m. to 11:45 p.m. The Perseid meteor shower will reach peak a couple of days later, but there will still bright Perseids visible to the vigilant.
I’ll have more to say about the supermoon tomorrow in a non-Ephemeris post.
08/01/2014 – Ephemeris – There’s a star party tonight
Ephemeris for Friday, August 1st. The sun rises at 6:28. It’ll be up for 14 hours and 38 minutes, setting at 9:07. The moon, 2 days before first quarter, will set at 11:35 this evening.
Tonight the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will host a star party at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory from 9 to 11 p.m. If it’s clear the planets Mars and Saturn and the Moon will be the featured attractions. Saturn’s rings are always a fabulous sight. Try to see the circular gap in the rings called Cassini division. Cassini is also the namesake of the spacecraft that has spent 10 years orbiting the planet. The moon Titan can also be easily seen. It’s a world larger than Mercury, has an atmosphere denser than the Earth’s and has lakes of liquid methane and ethane at its poles. Our Moon is two-thirds the diameter of Titan, and essentially airless, which allows us to see its features easily.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Sleeping Bear Dunes sun & star parties Status – July 26, 2014, 1:30 p.m. EDT
As of 2:30 p.m.
I talked with Marie and It’s a GO for this afternoon and evening! Have fun. Wish I wuz there.
As of 1:30 p.m.
According to the Weather Underground animation maps of clouds it looks like you’ll be in and out of clouds or a while. The Clear Sky Chart for the nearby Lanphier Observatory shows clear skies starting most of the afternoon and into the evening. I expect a call from ranger Marie about 3 to discuss things, but it’s looking good!
As of 12:20 a.m.
The Weather Channel App for Empire shows partly cloudy starting the about the time the solar viewing portion starts (4 p.m.) and clearing up from their. The Clear Sky Chart for the nearby Lanphier Observatory shows clear skies starting at 4 p.m. So it looks like a GO! However… Stay tuned.
07/11/2014 – Ephemeris – Spot Mercury tomorrow and Learn about two comets tonight
Ephemeris for Friday, July 11th. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 19 minutes, setting at 9:27. The moon, 1 day before full, will set at 6:31 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:08.
Really diehard Mercury watchers just may catch a glimpse of this very elusive planet tomorrow morning after it rises at 4:47 a.m. It’s below and left of Venus at that time. But before then the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will hold its monthly meeting tonight at Northwestern Michigan College’s Observatory on Birmley Road. Yours truly will be giving the talk starting at 8 p.m. about the two comets that will be in the news starting next month. The first will be orbited by the European Rosetta spacecraft which will send down a lander starting next month. The second will be a close approach of a comet to Mars, near enough to possibly menace our satellites orbiting Mars in October. There will be viewing afterwords.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
More information on the talk is here.
Addendum
Mercury and Venus rising in twilight at 5:30 a.m. July 12, 2014. Created using Stellarium.
Title Slide for Tail of Two Comets
06/06/2014 – Ephemeris – Astronomy activities this weekend in the Grand Traverse Region
Ephemeris for Friday, June 6th. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 26 minutes, setting at 9:24. The moon, 1 day past first quarter, will set at 2:33 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 5:57.
The Grand Traverse Astronomical Society, or GTAS, has a busy weekend. At 8 p.m. the regular meeting at Northwestern Michigan College’s Rogers Observatory features Dr. David Penney with his presentation of “The Rare Earth”. At 9 p.m. at the observatory will be a star party until 11 p.m. On Saturday the GTAS will have their telescopes at The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Philip A. Hart Visitors Center in Empire for viewing the sun from 4 to 6 p.m. Then at 9 the GTAS will deploy their telescopes at the Dune Climb for an evening with the planets. The Dunes events will be contingent on the weather. Due to the lateness of the sunset it will be about 10 p.m. before any planets are spotted.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
05/23/2014 – Ephemeris – Possible Meteor Storm overnight tonight
Ephemeris for Friday, May 23rd. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 5 minutes, setting at 9:12. The moon, 2 days past last quarter, will rise at 3:45 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:05.
If you want to see a possible meteor storm, go out tomorrow morning and find a dark location. The meteors will be seen all over the sky, but will seem to come from the north. The Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will be at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore at the Dune Climb with telescopes starting at 10 p.m. tonight, weather permitting, to enjoy the other wonders of the sky while we wait for the meteor storm to start. Dress warmly, bring a blanket or lounge chair so you can comfortably look up. The first meteors may show by 1:40 a.m. but the peak activity is expected about 3 a.m., but that estimate may be off by an hour or more. Check bobmoler.wordpress.com for cloud and meteor status from noon through 4 a.m. if it’s clear. The latter part depends on getting a decent data signal. The dunes seem to be the end of the world as far as cell phone service goes. I might have to climb the dune to get a good signal.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Remember these meteors should be visible from anywhere in the continental United States. Convert the times to your location. 3 a.m. EDT is 7 hours UT.
Start the evening tonight with a talk by Dr. Tyler Nordgren, astronomer, artist and dark sky advocate at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Philip A. Hart Visitor Center in Empire at 7 p.m. Afterward he will be signing copies of his beautiful new poster See the Stars from Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore featuring the Great and Little Bear constellations and the bluffs of the Sleeping Bear Dunes and the Manitou Islands. After that, weather permitting see the sunset from many of the park’s locations, then, for the hardy, settle down for an all night vigil for the possible meteor storm with the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society at the Dune Climb. We’ll be viewing out the planets and the other wonders of the spring and summer skies as we wait for the meteors to appear.
The expected radiant for the meteors of the May Camelopardalids, the meteors from the comet 209P/LINEAR at 3 a.m. on May 24, 2014. Credit: My LookingUp program.
Same chart as above but black on white to save ink if you print it.
Here’s the culprit: Comet 209P/LINEAR
This May 17, 2014 image of Comet 209/LINEAR is the average of 5, 180-second exposures, taken remotely with the PlaneWave 17″+ Paramount ME+STL-6303E robotic unit of the Virtual Telescope Project. The telescope tracked the comet, so stars are trailing. This comet has the potential to generate an exceptional meteor shower (Camelopardalids) on May 24, 2014. Gianluca Masi / Virtual Telescope Project
Image and caption above from the Planetary Society blog from Bruce Betts: http://www.planetary.org/blogs/bruce-betts/20140522-one-night-only-a-new-meteor.html.
Want to find the comet?
Finder chart for Comet 209P/LINEAR for 11 p.m. Note the dates are UT, 11 p.m. the 23rd is 3 a.m. UT on the 24th. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).
Ephemeris of positions for Comet 209P/LINEAR for May 20, 2014 to June 8, 2014 from the Minor Planet Center.
Got to http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/MPEph/MPEph.html to print your own ephemeris for this or any comet. For purposes of this comet the comet name is: 209P/LINEAR.
All these images may be enlarged by clicking on them.
Note that:
Delta is the distance from Earth in Astronomical Units (AU)
r is the comet’s distance from the sun in AU.
El is the elongation in degrees from the sun
Ph. is the phase angle, not a big deal for comets.
m2 is the magnitude of the comet’s coma. Comets appear dimmer than their magnitude suggests.
05/20/2014 – Ephemeris – Special doings at the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore Friday Night
Ephemeris for Tuesday, May 20th. Today the sun will be up for 14 hours and 59 minutes, setting at 9:09. The moon, 1 day before last quarter, will rise at 2:09 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:08.
This Friday evening Dr. Tyler Nordgren, astronomer, artist and dark sky advocate will give a presentation at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Philip A. Hart Visitor Center in Empire at 7 p.m. Afterward he will be signing copies of his beautiful new poster See the Stars from Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore featuring the Great and Little Bear constellations and the bluffs of the Sleeping Bear Dunes and the Manitou Islands. After that, weather permitting see the sunset from many of the parks locations, then, for the hardy, settle down for an all night vigil for a possible meteor storm with the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society at the Dune Climb (The bottom, not the top, though you can climb up there for an all-sky view.).
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
See the Stars from Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Poster by Tyler Nordgren.
05/19/2014 – Ephemeris – The meteor storm and an all night star party to view it
Ephemeris for Monday, May 19th. Today the sun will be up for 14 hours and 57 minutes, setting at 9:08. The moon, 2 days before last quarter, will rise at 1:33 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:09.
This will be a first for the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society, an all night star party this Friday night and Saturday morning. The reason is the predicted meteor storm Saturday morning from Comet 209P/LINEAR, discovered in 2004. Near a I can tell no one has seen a single meteor from this comet. However several astronomers who work on cometary debris have some confidence that debris from this comet which orbits the Sun every 5 years will cross the Earth orbit on the morning of May 24th around 3 a.m. give or take. The hardiest of the GTAS members will be at the Dune Climb of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore all night. Join us if you can.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The expected radiant for the meteors of the May Camelopardids, the meteors from the comet 209P/LINEAR at 3 a.m. on May 24, 2014. Credit: My LookingUp program.
Earth’s motion in respect to the expected meteoroid stream from Comet 209P/LINEAR. Calculations by Jeremie Vaubaillon. From meteor.seti.org.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 